Last year, we went to one of my favorite vacation destinations for a last minute birthday trip: Las Vegas! We’ve been to Las Vegas several times together before, including 2008, and 2012, as well as in 2011 (2011 is not yet documented on the blog!).

Bellagio Conservatory – Chinese New Year Theme

We were in Vegas right around the time of Chinese New Year, and the conservatory at the Bellagio had stunning Chinese New Year-themed decor!

The conservatory never ceases to amaze me. They always have the most fantastic themes. And it’s like a different place depending on whether you go during the day or at night. See how it has a completely different “feel” during the day?

As we pulled into the parking lot for Springs Preserve, we couldn’t help but notice the very cool solar panel-covered parking lot! Not sure what the solar panels are intended to power, but it seemed like a fantastic use of a very sunny area.

The botanical gardens themselves were lovely, and even had fun sculptural items throughout. Although it was February, Las Vegas was experiencing record breaking heat at the time, so it was 80+ degrees. (We had just left DC’s record breaking cold temperatures!).

The buildings that contained exhibits at Springs Preserve had a fun industrial look, and made us wonder whether this place is fairly new.

There was an ultra energy efficient home on display at Springs Preserve:

And inside one of the buildings, was an exhibit dedicated to the cocoa bean! It smelled divine in there!

There was also a small art exhibit in one of the buildings

Right across from the Springs Preserve is the Nevada State Museum. It looked pretty small, but we thought it was worth a visit since we were right there! The entire museum was empty, so we meandered around undisturbed.

There was a a room dedicated to telecommunication equipment!

House of Cards watchers, who knew that Underwood typewriters were a real thing? Not me!

Pinball Hall of Fame

We spent a lot of time (and a good chunk of change) in the Pinball Hall of Fame. But we had so much fun!

I even chuckled at their handicapped parking spaces in front of their building. Totally badass!

The rest of our time spent in Las Vegas will be covered in a future post! That includes Fremont Street (both during the day and evening), the Stratosphere observation deck, and carnival games at Circus Circus!